1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure is related to aerosol sorting. More particularly, the present disclosure is related to systems and methods for on demand sorting of pathogenic biological aerosols.
2. Description of Related Art
The events of the present day have made real time detection of pathogenic biological aerosols a necessity for both civilian and military applications. For example, recent outbreaks of airborne illnesses, such as Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), recent terrorist motivated biological attacks, and other events all highlight the need for real time detection and identification of pathogenic biological aerosols. As used herein, the term “aerosol” shall mean any suspension of solid or liquid particles in a gas, such as air. Thus, pathogenic biological aerosols are those airborne viruses or bacteria that cause or are capable of causing disease.
Biochemical techniques exist that can identify genus and species of many biological aerosols. However, these techniques often take a long time to obtain results. Moreover, the results of these techniques are often hampered by background or ambient aerosols and, thus, detecting pathogenic biological aerosols in the wide-variety of background aerosols (usually fewer than 1 in 105) is analogous to looking for a needle in the haystack.
Accordingly, it has been determined by the present application that there is a need for systems and methods that sort pathogenic aerosols from ambient air samples.